Internal Services

Description

Internal Services are those groups of related activities and resources that the federal government considers to be services in support of Programs and/or required to meet corporate obligations of an organization. Internal Services refers to the activities and resources of the 10 distinct services that support Program delivery in the organization, regardless of the Internal Services delivery model in a department. These services are:

• Management and Oversight Services
• Communications Services
• Legal Services
• Human Resources Management Services
• Financial Management Services
• Information Management Services
• Information Technology Services
• Real Property Management Services
• Materiel Management Services
• Acquisition Management Service

Planning highlights

Financial management and planning

In FY 2019-20, the Department of National Defence (DND) and the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) financial management and planning functions will be key factors enabling the institution to implement Strong, Secure, Engaged (SSE) and to ensure its effective oversight and accountability. DND/CAF will continue to build and maintain a high-performing financial management function by contributing to internal and government-wide talent management initiatives, and act as a steward to the finance community for recruitment, talent management and retention to meet SSE ambitions.

The recent fundamental government-wide digital transformation requires that the department leverage a mixture of digital technologies to deliver the finance function across the department. In order to realize the vision for Defence analytics, DND/CAF will modernize information management and technology, including advanced analytics for better knowledge management, integrated reporting, and financial controls.

The department’s Centre for Costing in Defence was set up in FY 2017-18 to assess options and scenarios with forecasting Defence spending over the next 20 years. In FY 2019-20, this function will continue to play a central role in ensuring that the cost estimates and risks of major projects comply with the Treasury Board’s guideline on Cost and Estimation for Capital Asset Acquisition.

Civilian human resources management

Effective civilian human resources management is critical to the successful implementation of SSE. In the coming year, our attention will be focused toward optimizing the civilian human resources business model. DND’s challenge is to ensure people are in place to deliver on the initiatives outlined in the defence policy and identifying future civilian workforce requirements. To streamline processes and enable faster and more efficient business processes, we are implementing better, smarter, faster human resources focusing on people, processes and technology. We will continue to implement a series of flexible, innovative and outcome-driven business transformation initiatives which will establish consistent and strategic human resources capabilities. These initiatives will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our compensation, labour relations, staffing and classification functions in order to meet growing demand – including effective human resources planning, prioritization of requests, increasing capacity and streamlining processes.

Ongoing issues with Phoenix and civilian pay have necessitated a more active stance and work is continuing to ensure employees are paid properly and on time. Increasing capacity on our Compensation Team will enable us to better equip, support and respond to employee compensation issues. We are also continuing to increase our capacity to measure performance and provide civilian workforce business intelligence and analytics to senior decision-makers.

Gender, diversity and inclusion

Embracing the values of diversity and inclusion are indispensable capability sets that enable the Defence Team’s ability to innovate, work globally and locally, to successfully fulfil its mandate. DND/CAF is committed to the advancement of human rights and equality. The department is integrating Gender-based Analysis Plus (GBA+) into all defence activities by 2019 under initiative 12 of the 2017 defence policy and through Canada’s National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security, as well as the 2016 Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS) Directive for Integrating United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 and Related Resolutions into CAF’s Planning and Operations; and the 2018 Deputy Minister Policy Statement on Diversity and Inclusion. Gender mainstreaming and the application of high-quality GBA+ across DND/CAF will support the development of more effective policies that consider the diverse needs of CAF members and Canadians.

In order to achieve the systematic integration of GBA+ as an analytical tool to inform Defence policies, projects, programmes and initiatives, DND/CAF is taking a systems-wide institutional approach.

To achieve this, the Joint Responsibility Centre, established by the Deputy Minister and the CDS, will continue providing support to the department through four main lines of effort: 1) training; 2) expertise; 3) systems and process alignment; and 4) oversight, monitoring and reporting. The Joint Responsibility Centre will deliver specialized training to the Defence Team on GBA+ in order to build internal capacity and continue providing expertise in gender equality and diversity specific to DND and CAF’s lines of business, providing high-level oversight on the integration of GBA+ into policies, projects and programmes in procurement, infrastructure, information management, science and technology, audit and evaluation, data analytics and all other areas. We will continue our work with other government departments to identify synergies, sharing best practices and lessons learned in enabling culture change and effective integration of GBA+. We will also continue to monitor the progress of the department’s efforts to increase our GBA+ capacity, quality and application, leading to a more inclusive and effective Defence Team serving at home and abroad.

By applying GBA+ and anchoring the principles of gender equality, diversity and inclusion into our work, DND/CAF is better positioned to support the Government of Canada’s Feminist Foreign Policy and deliver peace and security both at home and abroad. 

Communicating with Canadians 

Communicating progress on Defence initiatives helps ensure we remain focused on delivering results and contributes to transparency and better public understanding of Defence issues and challenges. As we continue to implement SSE, there will be ongoing communication about our progress, including projected timelines, key milestones, and funding. In addition, informing Canadians about how our military is serving Canada in missions at home and abroad is essential to inspiring their interest in military service and joining the CAF. Meaningful engagement with stakeholders is also a central part of our multi-faceted communications approach. 

National Defence Headquarters move to Carling Campus

In early 2017, Defence Team members from the National Capital Region (NCR) began moving into a newly renovated, state-of-the art workplace in Ottawa’s west end called National Defence Headquarters or NDHQ (Carling). The move is an extensive undertaking and part of a larger plan to consolidate the defence footprint from over 40 locations in the NCR to approximately seven. At least 9,300 staff members from across the region will relocate to this new NDHQ in a phased manner. Approximately 4,000 personnel are scheduled to move in Phase II beginning in early spring 2019 through to fall 2019. The remainder of personnel, approximately 1,300, will be moving in Phase III beginning in fall 2019 through the winter of 2020. The relocation of NDHQ will increase efficiencies, and reduce accommodation and operational costs for the Government of Canada. It is expected to save taxpayers $750 million over 25 years. Further, the new facility will allow personnel to work better together in a healthier and more modern environment with greater security.

Information Management

DND will continue to support Government of Canada (GC) priorities that are included in the Policy on Management of Information as well as Government of Canada Digital priorities, such as but not limited to GC Docs and the Information Resource Management System project seeking expenditure authority. 

Information Technology

Modernize DND's Enterprise Resource Management tools to support the department's transformation to evidence-based decision making. DND’s Enterprise Resource Management tools are used to capture its business information related to finance, human resources and materiel management, etc. to inform decision making and reporting. Substantial efforts and resources are being applied to its financial system of record based on SAP technology, to modernize and add tools that will enable business forecasting and allow DND to provide business analytics that are aligned to its Departmental Results Framework. In addition some modernization activities will support alignment to the Government of Canada enterprise financial management tool. 

Defence Data, Innovation and Analytics

DND has aligned its priorities for the next FY to enable data and analytics throughout the department and contribute to the implementation of the defence policy. The following are DND’s priorities for FY 2019-20:

• Providing DND/CAF with a data governance and policy structure, including a data strategy and master data management;
• Developing an Analytics roadmap for DND/CAF, including advanced analytics and artificial intelligence;
• Establishing a data-driven, goal-oriented culture to empower business process innovation across the Defence enterprise; and
• Enhancing education and training to enable analytics and sound data practices across DND/CAF.

Key Corporate Risk(s)

One DND/CAF key corporate risk can be associated with the Internal Services core responsibility. There is a risk that the unavailability of accurate, reliable data, and information management and knowledge transfer arrangements will impede DND/CAF evidence-based decision making, and policy making. This risk is prevented and mitigated by many of the controls articulated as activities of the Internal Services as listed above.

Budgetary financial resources (dollars)

Human resources (full-time equivalents)